Analysis: Covering Ukraine a guessing game where no news is good news

The Ukraine crisis continues to rumble on and frankly I can offer you no unique insight on it.

It is a situation surreal to be living through, horrifying for the people of Ukraine, and we in the media can only report what happens when it does, or the chatter of what might.

Reporting on my patch in Westminster, I can text MPs, ring Government departments, and have an idea of what is going on before it does.

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Being a journalist means having contacts across the political spectrum to both inform me and in turn our readers, however biased all sides seem to find it.

Covering an international crisis means relying on updates from the UK Government and those on the groundCovering an international crisis means relying on updates from the UK Government and those on the ground
Covering an international crisis means relying on updates from the UK Government and those on the ground

But with a war in Europe, it will not shock you to hear I have no contacts in the Russian Government.

I cannot message a source in the Kremlin to get a steer on an announcement, there are no aides to let me know an hour before news drops.

Instead we have to simply wait, relying on a drip feed of information from contacts within the UK Government or announcements it makes to everyone.

Boris Johnson visited Scotland this week, which would have been a wonderful opportunity for Scottish journalists to ask him about the crisis, and as a group push for the information he is safe to tell us.

Instead the Prime Minister did one clip with the broadcasters, on which the bulk of our understanding and updates come from.

Every day we chase an update wanting to know what happens, but the reality is even what we are told by the Government doesn’t really stand up.

We have been told things are progressing troops are being withdrawn and there is an opportunity for peace, but also that more troops are headed elsewhere and it could start any moment.

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This isn’t the briefing war of the Brexit negotiations, but briefings on an actual war where even UK politicians guesses are just that.

And so we wait. We spend every day waiting to hear updates on the possibility of war, something that seems incomprehensible to so many of us living in Europe.

Today I will speak to politicians to find out what is going on, but the reality is when they know, we’ll know.

It’s a cloud hanging over the people of Ukraine, but for now, no news is good news.

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